It wasn’t quite as easy as 1-2-3 for Novi’s varsity boys basketball team to knock off Canton in Friday’s KLAA tournament semifinal.

But the three players wearing those numbers for the Wildcats — Trendon Hankerson, Traveon Maddox, Jr. and Jiovanni Miles — sure put a major hurt on the host Chiefs, roaring back in the second half for a 61-56 victory.

The loss was the first of the season for the Chiefs, who had rolled up 17 wins a row entering the hard-fought, fast and physical contest.

“Man we were looking for this game for a while,” said Maddox, who led all scorers with 25 points. “Coming in, we knew they were 18-0, we knew it was going to be a big game and we knew it was going to be an upset.

“And all practice we’ve been stressing ‘Defense, defense, defense.’ It came out on top today.”

Novi head coach Brandon Sinawi, whose team improved to 13-7 and will move on to the March 1 KLAA final, said Maddox laid out the script for Friday night during Thursday’s practice.

“He told us yesterday in practice that this was going to be a game he wasn’t going to let us lose,” Sinawi said. “Forget what the records were, and them being undefeated. It doesn’t matter, it’s a basketball game and these kids love to play. Especially Tray.

“And he saved a very special performance for tonight. So, proud of him.”

Hankerson and Miles chipped in with 12 and 16 points, respectively, as Novi’s big three accounted for all but eight of the team’s points.

Shots wouldn't fall

Conversely, Canton stopped connecting and wound up making just 22 of 67 field goal attempts (32 percent), including seven of 27 from beyond the arc.

“We had some tough luck misses tonight, for sure,” Canton head coach Jimmy Reddy said. “A lot of in and outs on some threes, some tough misses at the rim with our big guys and our guards. We didn’t get to the foul line.

... “What really killed us is defensively, if you’re going to win and beat good teams you got to defend and rebound better than we did in the second half. We obviously did not.”

It didn’t help the Chiefs cause that the normally hot-shooting trio of guards B. Artis White, Vinson Sigmon and Eian Barker were off their game — with a big reason being how quickly Novi defenders got out on them to take away time and space on long field goal tries.

“Our team is very, very long,” said Maddox, who will play Division I basketball at Oakland University. “And when we contest shots it’s hard for teams to shoot over us.”

Canton senior forward Chase Meredith, who led the Chiefs with 17 points and eight rebounds, gave props to Maddox. But he is hopeful the teams will get another chance to face each other during Class A districts (which open March 5).

“He’s definitely a great player,” Meredith said. “We really had to contest him and I would say we didn’t do a great job of it, we kind of (got lax) a little bit in the second half.

“We have a chance to play them later on and I’d definitely say we got to pick it up on them.”

Sinawi, meanwhile, credited his team’s strong perimeter defense for making it a tough shooting night for the Chiefs.

“I thought we closed out well,” Sinawi said. “I thought we put pressure on them to take quicker shots than they’re used to taking. They got some really good players. Their record shows that. They got some kids that can get to the basket as well as hit some outside shots.

“Again, I thought our defensive presence and our quickness and close-out ability just made them shoot a little quicker. And we were lucky some of those went in and out.”

Barker and White finished with 11 and 10 points respectively, although both were less than 100 percent. White left the game with an apparent ankle injury in the fourth quarter. Also scoring 10 points was Vinson Sigmon.

“We had some tough luck misses tonight, for sure,” Reddy said. “A lot of in and outs on some threes, some tough misses at the rim with our big guys and our guards. We didn’t get to the foul line.”

Tough turnaround

Canton went up 16-12 after one quarter, with Barker connecting on a buzzer-beater.

The Chiefs built a 37-26 halftime advantage, with last-minute triples by Barker and White keying the attack.

But things turned around in the third quarter and Maddox set the tone for Novi’s comeback. He scored on a nifty, reverse layup and moments later powered his way to the basket for a lay-up.

Canton (17-1) will play a couple games in the week preceding districts. Reddy is hopeful that the banged up players (Barker, White, Conner Engel) will be ready to go by then.

“Our goal is to get healthy by the time March 5 rolls around, when we open up districts with Catholic Central,” Reddy said.